November 29, 2012

In our more informal times, it is acceptable to eat certain foods with your hands. The aim should be to create as little mess as possible.

1 – It is sensible to cut large items into manageable-sized pieces that can be supported with both hands. Always put the food down on your plate between bites.2 – When eating with your hands it can be tempting to hunch over your plate. Try to sit up straight, don’t intrude into your neighbour’s space and never put your elbows on the table.3 – If your food is too hot to touch it will be too hot to eat; avoid over-the-top blowing on your food to cool it down. Be patient.4 – When eating with your hands, it is better to take plenty of small bites. This will avoid any excess mess or possible overspill of any filling. If the filling spills onto the plate, use your fork to eat it -don’t pick it up with your fingers.5 – Make use of your napkin. Place your napkin on your lap, don’t tuck it into your shirt or collar. Wipe your hands as you need to, but remember it’s likely to be a bit messy. If your hands get food on them, try to avoid licking your fingers clean.6- If you get food on your lips, dab the corners of your mouth with your napkin as necessary during the meal. Don’t make grand wiping gestures. When you’ve finished, leave your napkin unfolded beside your plate.7- Never wipe your mouth with your hand or talk with your mouth full – even if you have a conversational gem up your sleeve.8 – Even if all your fellow diners have chosen to eat with their hands, it is perfectly acceptable to use a knife and fork if you wish.9 – Eating with your hands is a relaxed and convivial style of dining, but don’t let your standards slip. Remember your manners.10 – Never use your phone at the table.

November 9, 2009

“Since August I’ve had a post it note over my desk that simply said “meat hand”. I mulled over how to make it for a while. I realized that the old formed inside a plastic glove thing wouldn’t work since the fingers would cook so much faster than the rest of the hand. It wasn’t until I saw this hand gelatin mold that I had my plan.”

“I shot several angles to show how it has a base built in, meaning I could probably use it to mold meatloaf.”

“I made the basic meatloaf recipe from ‘How to Cook Everything’ using a food processor to chop the onions and carrot to a very fine mince so I could fill in the details of the mold without trouble. One meatloaf recipe using 2 pounds of meat will make two hands.”

“I sprayed the inside of the mold with cooking oil spray and it came out fairly easily. I put it on top of a rack to allow the fat to run off as it cooked.”

“I did a few versions, learning as I went along.”

HAND MEAT – VERSION No.1:

“The first one was straight meatloaf. I surrounded it with mashed potatoes and kale (or brain matter and swamp greens if you have kids, or just act like kids). It looked ok, sort of creepy.”

HAND MEAT – VERSION No.2:

“The next time I tried adding fingernails made of onion, which were just like press on nails. To make the fingernails I sliced a thin round off of a single layer of an onion, then used kitchen scissors to trim it into a nail shape keeping the lines in the onion running the length of the nail. I kept the thinnest end of the onion slice at the tip of the nail.”

“This time to better define the fingers I piped mashed potatoes around to define the hand shape. I just used a ziploc bag with a small corner snipped off to do the detail inbetween fingers, then I snipped off a larger corner to pipe around the hand. I smoothed down the mashed potatoes with a silicone spatula. The results where pretty creepy.”

HAND MEAT – VERSION No.3:

“The ketchup covered hand made me pretty happy but… I had this idea. My mom used to throw a slice of cheese on top of her meatloaf before cooking it and the cheese always turned out browned and crispy. I wondered how that would work with my relatively delicate hand. I also had the idea to use the smaller inner layers of the onion to create a cartoon-y wrist bone sticking out.”

“I made two versions. The first used white onion and was simply covered in cheese. The second used red onion and was covered with ketchup and then cheese. I used slices of provolone cheese because I knew it wouldn’t slide off completely as it melted. (Maggi suggested it, thanks Maggi!) This time I used the version of meatloaf with spinach, again from ‘How to Cook Everything’. Here are some pre-cooked pictures – see above.”

“If I were to do it again I would have put less cheese around the fingers, or rather, I would have put narrower pieces. The cheese pooled inbetween the fingers and made it more difficult to diguise later on.”

“This cheese thing, it worked a bit too well. We couldn’t bring ourselves to actually eat either of them (though, we had been eating a lot of meatloaf lately). Here is a picture showing them side by side. They were cooked at the same time and the one with the ketchup beneath the cheese (white fingernails) browned a bit more. You can also see that piping the detail more carefully can make a difference.”

“The wrist bone of the white onion was pushed out a bit as the meatloaf cooked.”